


Odysseus' Descent into Hell

by BlueFloyd



Category: The Odyssey - Homer
Genre: Alcohol, Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Drug Abuse, Drug Addiction, Drug Use, Father-Son Relationship, Gen, after the end of the story, domestic life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-08
Updated: 2018-04-08
Packaged: 2019-04-19 05:04:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,294
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14229879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueFloyd/pseuds/BlueFloyd
Summary: Translation ofLa Descente aux Enfers d'Ulysse. Needs some prof reading by someone who's a native english speaker.It is often said that Odysseus is one of the greek heroes that did a catabase, a descent into Hells. That is true, but not with regards to the part of the Odyssey that people think of. When Odysseus confers with Tiresias, he uses a nekuia, an convoxation of the deads upon Earth. He does not descend into Hell. However...





	1. To Hell

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [La Descente aux Enfers d'Ulysse](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11933418) by [BlueFloyd](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueFloyd/pseuds/BlueFloyd). 



However, there exists another, less epic and thus less-known episod. It takes place after Odysseus came back to Ithaca. Once the slaughter of the pretenders, the joy of homecoming, the bliss of being reunited with Penelope are over, Odysseus finds himself idle. Ithaca does not require much overseeing, it's been years the kingdom goes along smoothly without a king being there. Odysseus is bored. He misses adventuring. He considers boarding a boat once more, but he fears that this time, he would never find his way home. He cannot possibly do this to Penelope, or at least it's the reason he gives to himself, so he doesn't have to face that he's the one terrified of dying away from Ithaca. 

So he keeps running around in circles. He gaining on weight, he's bickering with Penelope, he's always irascible and dissatisfied, he keeps thinking back on his past epics. He feels like he went back to being ordinary, just one small monarch of one small kingdom on a small island. It's his family's faulf, anchoring him to Ithaca and to dullness. He starts to drink. A bit, then some more, then a lot more.

His relationship to Penelope keeps degrading. Arguments are more and more frequent, until she decides to go back to her parents', "to think about all this and look at the situation from afar". She found a way to wait for him through all these years, but she can't seem to find a way to live with him. She had planned on going away for one week, but she don't come back at the end of the week. Or of the next one. 

 Odysseus can't seem to reach through to Telemachus either. Telemachus grew up with stories of a father bigger than legends, sailing restlessly all accross the Mediterranean Sea. When he finally get to meet him, he's a drunk prone to burst of anger and never getting close to a boat. And the generation gap between their interests is blatant. They have nothing to say to each other. Telemachus stays as little as possible in the palace. He comes home late every night, and as soon as he gets his first pay, he moves into a studio downtown. That's another thing, he has decided to get a job instead of preparing himself to inherit the kingdom and the associated responsabilities. "We'll take care of that later. You're still there and in charge, aren't you? is his answer if Odysseus tries to talk about the subject.

Odysseus keeps on falling downward. One of the numerous days he's nursing his permanent hangover in a tavern by the harbor, one of the sleaziest dealers of Ithaca introduces him to shit. Odysseus welcomes the feeling of weightlessnees the drug gives him. He starts smoking. At least for a time he eases up on the drinking and smoking makes him lose some weight. But inevitably, his drinking catches up, and he switches to harder drugs. To finance his drug comsuption, he sells the palace furnitures, up until the wedding bed he had built. He empties Ithaca's treasure, pawns the few things he had brought from his travels, and finally sells the palace itself.

He ends up in the streets, and got nicknamed "the Beggar King" by the few inhabitants who still have some sympathy for him. But there are less and less of them, as he lashes violenty when he's in withdrawal or utterly drunk.

An evening when he's high as can be, he summons the courage to board a boat to go back to Circe, certain that there is nothing left for him on Ithaca and that she will welcome him, heal him, take care of him. Amazingly given the state he's in, he manages getting out of the harbor before sinking the boat.

 


	2. And back.

He wakes up in an hospital bed. Telemachus is by the bed, looking in a state of shock. Odysseus avoided drowning only due to the timely passage of a fisherman. He was in a coma for several days. Several days without drugs, without alcohol, correctly fed. He realize what he has become, he sees Telemachus was worried sick about him when he thought everybody had abandoned him. He bursts in tears. He cries for hours like a kid, his head on the knees of his son who has no idea how to react.

He has hit rock bottom. He knows he was immensely lucky not to die. A discreet intervention of Athena is not to be ruled out. But Athena, if it was indeed her doing, has little patience. The Goddess will not help him again if he repeats the same mistake. If he relapses, he's done for, so he will not, whatever the price. Odysseus being Odysseus, he goes the extreme way. He beheads his former dealer, then makes it publicly known that the same thing will happen to anyone choosing to keeps on selling drugs on Ithaca, or letting him buy alcohol.

He finds an odd job in a gift shop. That's hard, he ends up selling keyrings commemorating his own Odyssey. But it serves as a constant reminder of who he was and still could be. He saves up all his money. He starts building furnitures again as a hobby, especially beds. He sells them on his weekends, keeping his job at the gift shop during week days. He works constantly, it keeps his mind busy. People are impressed by his will, and the quality of its works. His trade starts to take off. It motivates him to work harder. After a few years, he quits the gift shop and works his factory and trade full time. 

He sees Telemachus frequently. His son has become captain of a commercial ship. They speak about the sea. The factory flourishes. Telemachus buys his own boat, and associates with his father to export Odysseus' furnitures in several Mediterranean harbors. 

One day, Penelope tells Telemachus she'd like to see Odysseus again, if he's okay with it. She had replaced her father as head of the family weaving business, and he has just died. Odysseus is terribly anxious. He wants to show her he's not the same person he was when she left him. He's afraid that their meeting will turn terribly wrong but can't possibly consider not seeing her again if she's willing to. 

They have a very long conversation. Penelope do most of the talking, this first night. She talks about her life since he left for the Trojan War. How she lived without him when he was at sea, and how she lived since she left him. What is similar, what is different. They decide to see each other again from time to time. Eventually, Odysseus will even be able to tell her about what horrors he lived through in front of the Walls of Troy, about his shipwrecks, and especially about the last. They do not end up back together. That's not what they want. They appreciate the quiet turn their relationship as taken, in this autumn of their lives.

Odysseus never succeeds in saving up enough money to achieve his dream of buying back Ithaca's Palace. But he never drinks a drop of grappa nor uses any kind of drug anymore. At 65, he entrusts the direction of the workshop to his hardest working apprentice. He retires in a house by the harbor where his life goes on quietly, surrounded by friends and Telemachus' family. He raises all five of Telemachus' children while their father was at sea. Odysseus dies at 82 in his sleep. Telemachus declines the Island's Council's offer of a national funeral. Odysseus' grave is sober, with only a short inscription reminding the passerby that Odysseus was, to his death, the last king of Ithaca.


End file.
